History at its most horrible best

Aphrodite from Horrible Histories

Published:16:26Wednesday 10 February 2016

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Do you like your history dull and boring, dusty and uninteresting? Then do not book for Horrible Histories at the Congress Theatre - which is going to be packed with awesome facts, crazy costumes, jokes and songs in a fast-paced, informative and funny show.

It’s been 11 years since the acclaimed Birmingham Stage Company first staged Horrible Histories; these latest productions Groovy Greeks and Incredible Invaders promise to be the biggest and nastiest shows yet.

With an inventive digital backdrop and Bogglevision 3D glasses, audiences will be ducking from sploshing mud, flying limbs, venomous snakes and rabid dogs as history comes to horrible life right in-front of them!

Incredible Invaders (Wed 1.30pm, Thurs 10.30am, Fri 7pm and Sat 2.30pm) covers British history over a 1,000 year period from the Roman invasion at 43AD through until the rather unfortunate incident with King Harold and an arrow just up the road at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. In the show we meet our heroine, ancient Briton Mavis as she tries to avoid a life of servitude to the Invading Romans, Saxons and Vikings.

In Groovy Greeks (Wed 10.30am, Thurs 7pm, Fri 10.30am, Sat 7pm) Terry Deary, author of the original books, directs proceedings as the voice of thunderclap-belting Zeus. The show takes a bewildered family through the main events on the mythological and actual timeline, from the Minotaur to the fall of Troy and the first ever Olympics – along with plenty of potty jokes, daft songs, amplified bodily functions which are sure to provide the younger audiences with a wealth of mirth all culminating in a boisterous version of Greece Has Got Talent for the Gods of Mount Olympus.

The original Terry Deary books were first published in 1993 and in addition to the stage versions there has also been a BAFTA award winning CBBC TV adaptation of the books.